Our astronomy club had an outreach event a couple of weeks ago and I am only now getting around to posting some photographs. We were there to look at the moon, which was, unfortunately, a full moon. The moon is more spectacular during the first quarter phase, when to the eye, is is half illuminated. That's because when the sunlight rakes across the moon at a low angle, as in first quarter, all the jagged mountains and craters stand out in stark relief. During full moon, the moon looks as smooth as a quarter. it is still interesting though.
We did have a nice crowd as you can see here. There were about 6 of us with telescopes which was good because we had a pretty large crowd.
So this is what a full moon looks like as seen through a telescope. I have posted a larger than normal image so if you click on this you can see a lot more datail.
Here is a high school student looking through my home made telescope and she was transfixed by the view, which is always fun. Some people look in the eyepiece and then after 5 seconds say "Oh, cool..." and then walk away. Others act as if their eye is glued to the eyepiece.
Here the director of the planetarium was helping people observe through my telescope, so that I had more time to take photographs. These are such rewarding evenings for us all.
2 comments:
It’s wonderful that you and others in the Astronomy Club devote your time to showing others the delights of stargazing. It’s so exciting to see the moon through a telescope!
Sounds like a great time for people to gather and learn about space. Though looking at the full moon from earth is always the most stunning to me with its beautiful fullness and glow, it is interesting to learn in the blog that the first quarter moon shows more detail of the moon's surface through the telescope. Trace
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